Game of Thrones‘ universe is expanding once again, but it’s avoiding a mistake made by one of the other biggest fantasy franchises of all time. Thrones has been the dominant force in the genre over the past decade plus, becoming one of the biggest TV shows of all time, and now a bona fide franchise with one already successful spinoff, and, if HBO has its way, a lot more yet to come. Of course, it hasn’t all been perfect, as there were some rumblings that one or two people didn’t like Game of Thrones Season 8, and House of the Dragon has faced its own criticism, but for the most part, as far as building out the franchise goes, it’s been pretty solid.
Game of Thrones, and before it, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books, exist in conversation with The Lord of the Rings. Martin is hugely indebted to and inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien, while also wanting to eschew many of the tropes that were repeated over and over in the post-Tolkien fantasy fiction landscape. Likewise, Thrones came in and essentially became the Lord of the Rings of television – something that’s now worked both ways, because The Rings of Power probably doesn’t get made without that success.
And so, the latest pivot in that saga comes with HBO attempting something similar to what Warner Bros. did with The Lord of the Rings: adapting the author’s prequel that takes place several decades before the main works, and is shorter and lighter. For LOTR, this meant The Hobbit, a great, fun read… that they decided to turn into three separate movies. 310 pages were stretched into 474 minutes (and that’s just the theatrical versions), and the tone was completely changed. Aiming to capitalize on the success of Rings, they tried to redo those films with The Hobbit, going big and epic when that’s not what the story demanded. And while it technically worked in that the movies were a financial success, they were also a bloated mess and hurt the legacy of the franchise.
Game of Thrones‘ version of this is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which adapts Martin’s The Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. Beginning around 90 years earlier, they follow a knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his squire, Egg, on adventures across lesser-explored parts of Westeros, with a focus beyond dragons, White Walkers, and battles for the Iron Throne. The books do have some action, brutality, and twists, but they are fundamentally much smaller in scale, lighter in tone, and generally far breezier to get through.
With HBO having had such success with both Thrones and House of the Dragon, however – two shows that follow a similar pattern – it would’ve been tempting for them to try and force this into that style. To give the audience more of what they’re used to, rather than something different, just like what happened with The Hobbit. Thankfully, the trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms makes it crystal clear that won’t be the case: there’s a lot of humor, a real lightness of touch, and a strong focus on the unlikely character pairing at its core. It looks like it’s nailing the books, and Season 1 consisting of six 30-minute episodes supports that notion
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Is Perfect For Game of Thrones Right Now
This isn’t just a relief in terms of avoiding the pitfalls of The Hobbit, but also for the future of HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise. Both shows released so far have their clear merits, as well as some drawbacks, but any piece of IP that’s to spawn multiple spinoffs needs a sense of diversity in order to thrive. It can’t all just be the same thing, because then it’ll end up feeling too repetitive, and simply a dilution of the thing everyone loved in the first place.
Those kinds of stories absolutely have their place, and things like Aegon’s Conquest will be huge in scale, with plenty of fiery dragon action, and that’s cool. But finding room for smaller, more character-driven projects, and ones that can play around with having a little more humor, or focusing on different parts of Westeros, will make the world so much richer. Not everything has to be about characters warring for the Iron Throne, or a battle to save the realm from extinction.
There’s so much texture and so many layers to the sprawling universe Martin created, and much more worth exploring. That HBO is doing it with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a very encouraging sign, and hopefully it’ll not only be as great as it looks, but as popular as it deserves to be too.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on HBO and HBO Max on January 18th, 2026.
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